Overview
This unique dictionary and introduction to Global Environmental Governance (GEG), written and compiled by two veterans of the international stage, provides a compilation of over 5500 terms, organizations and acronyms, drawn from hundreds of official sources. An introductory essay frames the major issues in GEG and outlines the pitfalls of talking past one another when discussing the most critical of issues facing the planet. It challenges those who are concerned with the management of our planet and its inhabitants to understand and accept a vocabulary common to the often-opposing objectives sought in the many GEG instruments. The result is a practical tool that should find a central place on the desk of anyone involved in environmental management, development or sustainability issues anywhere in the world, including the United Nations, government policy makers, NGOs and other stakeholder groups, the business community, and students and professionals. This fully revised and updated edition contains over 500 new entries and acronyms on global environmental governance as well a new introductory section on global water governance, one of the most pressing environmental issues in our era of climate change, growing populations and food shortages. Praise for the first edition:
Synopsis
This unique dictionary and introduction to Global Environmental Governance (GEG), written and compiled by two veterans of the international stage, provides a compilation of over 5000 terms, organizations and acronyms, drawn from hundreds of official sources. An introductory essay frames the major issues in GEG and outlines the pitfalls of talking past one another when discussing the most critical of issues facing the planet. It challenges those who are concerned with the management of our planet and its inhabitants to understand and accept a vocabulary common to the often-opposing objectives sought in the many GEG instruments.
This fully revised and updated edition contains over 500 new entries and acronyms on global environmental governance, as well as a new introductory section on global water governance, one of the most pressing environmental issues in our era of climate change, growing populations and food shortages.
Mary Rumsey - Library Journal
Formerly with the Organization of American States, the authors of this revised 5000-entry dictionary of terms, organizations, and acronyms bring years of experience in negotiating and administering international environmental agreements to the task of clarifying and standardizing the vocabulary of global environmental governance. (The first edition was published in 2004 under the title C.H.A.O.S.S.: An Essay and Glossary for Students and Practitioners of Global Environmental Governance.) While dictionaries of environmental terms abound, this volume adds the vocabulary of international law and diplomacy. Unlike U.S.-focused dictionaries of environmental law, this one takes as its primary audience policy makers who create and interpret instruments that govern global environmental issues. The introductory essay explains the need for common definitions: "What good is an instrument that contains all the right words if the parties that agreed to them understand them in mutually exclusive ways?" Additional material includes a list of definition sources, selected agreements, and principles and a separate list of acronyms and abbreviations.
Editorials
Library Journal
Formerly with the Organization of American States, the authors of this revised 5000-entry dictionary of terms, organizations, and acronyms bring years of experience in negotiating and administering international environmental agreements to the task of clarifying and standardizing the vocabulary of global environmental governance. (The first edition was published in 2004 under the title C.H.A.O.S.S.: An Essay and Glossary for Students and Practitioners of Global Environmental Governance.) While dictionaries of environmental terms abound, this volume adds the vocabulary of international law and diplomacy. Unlike U.S.-focused dictionaries of environmental law, this one takes as its primary audience policy makers who create and interpret instruments that govern global environmental issues. The introductory essay explains the need for common definitions: "What good is an instrument that contains all the right words if the parties that agreed to them understand them in mutually exclusive ways?" Additional material includes a list of definition sources, selected agreements, and principles and a separate list of acronyms and abbreviations.
—Mary Rumsey